The present invention relates to a system and method for document creation, storage, indexing, and tracking. In particular, varying types of documents, each being uniquely associated with a particular characteristic identifying parameter, are created, stored, indexed, and tracked by a system and method which substantially reduces the time and manual labor required for filing, indexing, and retrieving documents and improves the accuracy of document filing by reducing the likelihood of misfiled or lost documents.
In enterprises in which substantial amounts of documentation are generated on a regular basis, managing such documentation, for example storing, tracking, indexing, and later retrieving when/as needed, can be a significant burden on the enterprise in terms of labor and space requirements, costs, and the possibility of documents being lost or misfiled. This burden can be particularly acute, for example, in the management of patient charts at a hospital. A patient chart is created for each patient admitted into the hospital, and, for even short hospital visits, numerous forms, e.g., admission forms, consent forms, payment forms, progress notes, etc., are prepared and completed during the visit. All of the forms must be tracked and filed in the appropriate patient chart.
A typical hospital admission form 220 is shown in FIG. 3. This is a fairly standard form, and for any given hospital or related network of hospitals, the form will be identical for all patients for which such a form is applicable. In the upper right-hand comer of the form is a blank space 210 at which document identifying information is provided. In systems presently at use in many hospitals, such blank forms are stored in forms bins, and the information is mechanically imprinted in area 210, as what is known as an address-o-graph, from an embossed identification card that is created when the patient checks into the hospital. The identification, or address-o-graph, card may include such information as the patient""s name, a visit identifier (e.g., by date and/or procedure), a referring physician, the admission date, a billing number, etc., and the card is used for mechanically imprinting this information on every form that is completed during and in connection with the patient""s hospital stay.
Filing all the forms in the associated patient charts requires that a filing clerk manually sort and index all forms and physically place each form in the associated patient chart. This process is very time and labor intensive. Moreover, the process is vulnerable to filing mistakes due to errors in reading the identification information imprinted on the form or simple human error in mistakenly placing a form in the wrong patient chart. Furthermore, because blank forms are simply obtained from a forms bin, with no record having been created of the initiation of the form, there is no way to track the forms. If a form is lost or misfiled, the absence of the form may not be readily apparent to the filing clerk or other hospital staff member reviewing the patient chart. This can be especially problematic for forms that comprise multiple pages, all of which are not prepared on the same day. For example, in many hospitals, nurses fill out progress notes during a patient""s visit to record the status and progress of the patient as well as other information related to the patient""s treatment and condition. As one progress note is completed, a subsequent note is obtained from a blank forms bin and appended to the previously prepared note(s). The preparation of the subsequent progress notes is not recorded and the notes may not be sequentially numbered. For patient visits of significant duration, the progress notes may comprise several sheets of forms. When it is time to file the progress notes into the associated patient chart, there is no way for the filing clerk to know how many progress notes were prepared or in what sequential order they should be filed. Thus, if the progress notes are filed out of order, or one or more sheets of the progress notes is lost or misfiled, such an error or omission can often go undetected.
Subsequent review of the patient chart for follow-up cases or for investigating complications, requires that the patient chart be requested, located, and physically retrieved, which is also labor intensive as well as time consuming. Furthermore, unless duplicate charts are kept in the hospital, which would further exacerbate storage space burdens, if one physician, staff member, or administrator is reviewing a patient""s chart, another physician, staff member, or administrator can not simultaneously review the chart.
Thus, a significant need exists for a system and method which reduces the labor requirements of filing and retrieving documentation and improves the accuracy of filing and indexing multiple documents.
According to one aspect of the invention, a computer system manages the storage of multiple groups of documents. Each group of documents is associated with a characteristic identifying parameter and is comprised of a variety of different types of documents. The system includes a document output device, a document scanning device, memory, and a computer processor. The document output device, for example a printer, creates the different types of documents and forms a machine-readable graphic code on each document. The graphic code has embedded therein document-identifying information including the type of document and the characteristic identifying parameter with which the document will be associated. The document scanning device is constructed and arranged to scan documents created by the document output device and read the machine-readable graphic code and to create a digital data record of each document scanned. The digital data records of the scanned documents are stored in the memory. The computer processor processes the digital data record of each scanned document to identify the type of document and the characteristic identifying parameter of each digital data record and electronically stores each digital data record in a portion of the memory corresponding to the associated characteristic identifying parameter.
According to another aspect of the invention, the machine-readable graphic code is a bar code.
According to another aspect of the invention, a computer-implemented method is provided for storing and indexing a group of documents. Each group of documents is associated with a characteristic identifying parameter and comprises a variety of different types of documents. Each document is generated with a unique graphic code having embedded therein document-identifying information including the type of document and the characteristic identifying parameter with which the document will be associated. A digital data record of each of the documents is created and the unique graphic code of each document is read to identify the type of document and the characteristic identifying parameter with which the document is associated. The digital data records of the documents are indexed according to each document""s associated characteristic identifying parameter and are electronically stored in a memory location corresponding to its associated characteristic identifying parameter.
According to another aspect of the invention, a record is made of each document created, and the document-identifying information embedded in each unique graphic code of each digital data record is compared with the document-identifying information of the recorded documents to determine whether or not a digital data record is created for each document created.
According to another aspect of the invention, a computer system for managing the storage of medical forms is provided. Each form is associated with one medical patient of a group of medical patients. The computer system includes a document output device, a document scanning device, memory, and a computer processor. The document output device, for example a printer, creates each of the medical forms and places on each form created a machine-readable graphic code having embedded therein form-identifying information including the type of form and the name of the medical patient with which the form will be associated. The document scanning device is constructed and arranged to scan forms created by the document output device and read the machine-readable graphic code and to create a digital data record of each form scanned. The digital data records of the scanned forms are stored in the memory. The computer processor processes the digital data record of each scanned form to identify the type of form and the medical patient with which each digital data record is associated and electronically stores each digital data record in a portion of the memory corresponding to the associated medical patient.
Other objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, including the methods of operation and the function and interrelation of the steps and components, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims, with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this disclosure, and wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding features in the various figures.